Bisexual Punishment is Particularly Harsh in Saudi Arabia

Men who are married in Saudi Arabia who are found guilty will be stoned to death. But, an unmarried man caught in a homosexual act will be punished with 100 lashes and banishment for a year.

That’s according to the recent report by the Thomson Reuters Foundation which has compiled unfair discrimination against the BLGT community in various countries.

The Sharia law under strict Islamic followings in Saudi Arabia is more harsh for a man in a heterosexual marriage. Although bisexuality isn’t acknowledged particularly, the married man caught with another man will face a violent death. The accusation of sodomy can be “proved by the testimony of four righteous men who might have observed it” in Iran, and is also punishable by death.

In Mauritania, Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and 12 states in northern Nigeria, and in southern parts of Somalia, homosexual acts are punished with the death penalty, according to the report, no matter who is doing it. Gay acts are illegal in 78 countries.

In countries such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Malaysia, among others, same-sex acts are punishable with long prison terms and a hefty fine.

Anal intercourse is punishable by imprisonment or hard labor in Jamaica and in the Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Bisexual and gay men are still not allowed to donate blood for one year after having sex with a man in the United States, according to the Food and Drug Administration which eased a decades-old lifetime ban on blood donation last year.

Mike Szymanski has written about bisexual issues since 1989 and has one of the longest-running regular bisexual columns as the National Bisexuality Examiner. He came out as bisexual in a cover story of Genre magazine, which resulted in more than 50 television appearances, including Ricki Lake, Phil Donahue Show and 20/20. Szymanski won the Lambda Literary Award in 2007 for co-authoring an informative humor book “The Bisexual’s Guide to the Universe: Quips, Tips and Lists for Those Who Go Both Ways.” Write him at [email protected]